Does this exercise ever get easier? I have to stop numerous times before I reach the 12th fret and get a lot of cramping on the pinky side of my palm. Normal? Does it get easier? Or am I doing something wrong?

That means you are using muscles you don’t usually use (this is good because the pinky needs to get into the game) Just like any exercise it gets easier and your speed will take off as soon as your muscle memory gets ingrained. Keep it up, this is awesome

I have been doing the Speed Kills 1 warmup series ‘every day’ since 06/09/2017, without metronome, with tempo approximately 40 BPM to 60 BPM (some days I decide to do the warmup slower or faster), each exercise I start at 12th fret and move it towards the nut and then at the nut I repeat from the nut all the way down the neck to 24th fret. When I first started these exercises it was more like approx 20 BPM, very very slow was my max, I had to stop to rest during each exercise many times throughout, had cramping/shooting pain on the pinky side of the palm, tons of burning in the thumb (** none of these effects lasted for more than 10 mins after stopping playing), after several weeks I finally got a little faster to the “not so incredibly annoying to do” 40-50 BPM range and am able to continue the complete exercise. The entire warmup takes approx 25-35 minutes depending on tempo and if I repeat exercises over some parts of the neck. Today is 09/07/2017 so that means I have been doing SK1 every day for almost 3 months (almost 90 days) continuous.

My fingers still get really tired.

I still have to stop for a half-minute after an exercise especially when it uses the pinky (more especially for the final warmup fingers 3 & 4) and especially when I go at faster tempo. My fingers (and forearm) feels tired/burn and I need at least a few seconds to recover. Regardless of whether I really try focusing on “relax those fingers” or various “pull back with arm not so much press with fingers” muscle action or not.

It seems to me that this is strange but I don’t know.

* ‘every day’ means 6 days a week, sometimes 7 days a week, typically first thing in the morning before breakfast, notated in my practice log, in the following practice order:

– Doug’s warmup (0213….) ; no metronome
– SK1 warmups (finger order as given… 12, 13, 14, etc) ; no metronome
– Doug’s/SK1 chromatic warmup (1234) ; no metronome
Total time for this is approx 40 mins.
– Initial warmup done, then typically continue other SK1/Doug scale exercises; no metronome
– Then work on specific difficult solo measures with or without metronome

** when I say, the shooting pain thru the side of the palm or thru the thumb muscle was only while playing or for maybe 10 minutes after playing, the first few weeks when I first started these exercises, my fretting hand especially pinky was basically worn out for half a day after the warmup, pretty much like doing weight lifting then unable to do much lifting with those same muscles for several hours afterwards. Not to be confused with real injury or inflammation, as far as I can tell, it seems more like a ‘need recovery time’ muscle limitation. Although this is better now, it still isn’t completely resolved, i.e. the warmup still really wears out my fretting hand.

The warmups seem to improve my playing for later in the day, for sure, compared to those times when I start playing songs without doing the warmups first, or only doing half of them (doing all of them is also better than doing only half of them).

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